Why I’m Not About that CrossFit Grind

To me, CrossFit is like a cavity. It can be a pain, cause issues and I just don’t like it.

I got into CrossFit about a few years ago. In general, I feel there are some great things about this type of fitness training/regiment/whatever you want to call it, but also some not so great things about it, as there are pros and cons to just about everything in life.

When I first heard about CrossFit, I thought it was badass. I’ve always been an advocate of fitness and mental strength and because I’m always willing to learn something new, I gave it a try.

The “box” that I went to was pretty legit looking. The one thing I noticed when I started was the feeling of intimidation. These people were just ripped. But everyone has to start somewhere, right? Things were going fine for a while but then I started to notice more of a competitive nature in people and trying to one up another when clearly this is supposed to be a competitive sport where you are trying to one up yourself, not others, unless you are in an actual competition.

I followed CrossFit for a while by watching the CrossFit Games, looking at Instagram photos of athletes, watched YouTube videos and participating in WODs. It was fun. However, it can be brutal, cause injuries quickly and even though CrossFit athletes appear strong, I feel most are lead by their ego which is a sign of mental weakness.

The one thing I give CrossFit credit for is teaching correct form when lifting heavy. This is important. However, the whole circuit training, and such can throw you off and because you are in such a rush, you throw correct form out the window and increase your chances of injury. Throwing out your back just to beat a specific time, or AMRAP, is stupid and I don’t roll with that shit. Neither is trying to overwork your body just to prove to others how heavy you can snatch.

So with the tremendous amounts of people competing with one another, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to go back to a regular gym to do my own thing at my own time. I didn’t pay a ridiculous amount of money to waste my time watching other people injure themselves in order to look stronger than someone else during that WOD hour. And yes CrossFit memberships are stupid expensive.

Even though I went back to my own thing at a regular gym, I still continued to keep up with the athletes for a bit because they do look pretty aesthetically pleasing. I’ve seen so many of them build incredible strength and talk about how much hard work and dedication they’ve put into it with their unbreakable mental strength. That’s awesome and I give them all huge credit for that because it does take a lot of hard work and dedication.

However, on the downside, they advocate how they got to that point only from their “unbreakable” mental strength, yet they are so hard on themselves when they can’t push themselves at a one-rep PR or they’re constantly trying to impress people with their physical appearance. They look great already, what more do they want? I’d respect them more if they just relaxed, stopped trying to prove themselves, respect what their body is trying to tell them, understand that vulnerability is a normal human emotion and cared less of what others thought of them. Especially the women, oy vey!

In my opinion, I feel that chivalry is not dead. I just feel that too many women nowadays try too hard to prove their strength and so it causes men to feel unworthy. That’s not nice. I feel this is what most, but not all, CrossFit women do. They have the “No, fuck off, I’ll do it, I don’t need your help… I’m a strong woman and I can overhead squat you” kind of attitude and it’s just mean and sad. I’ve seen it many times both in the box and when they visit normal gyms. I know there’s men who want to act like a gentleman and just trying to help (aside from flirting) and I feel so bad for them when they get shut down like that. Will I say no to a guy who wants to help me put weights on the bar? Nope. Please do! And hi, I’m Jen and thank you for helping me! Much is appreciated! Insert small talk here.

Even though this observation pertains to a lot of what I’ve experienced, it doesn’t mean that this is how I feel about ALL CrossFit athletes and “boxes”. I know there are many Crossfitters out there who are truly secure about themselves and train this way in the comfort of their own home because they genuinely resonate with the training regimen. They rock! And I know there’s probably a lot of CrossFit boxes/gyms that are legit. I just don’t resonate with most of it because I’ve allowed myself to experience it more than a few times, and I’ve just concluded a simple fact: I don’t like it. Except the gymnastics part. That’s pretty dope. Cheers!

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4 thoughts on “Why I’m Not About that CrossFit Grind”

These days it’s a wonder that when a guy asks a girl that at a gym, if they can help, it isn’t considered sexual harrassment. I’m sure some guys do it just because they know someone is new at the gym and might like to have some help, but it could be seen as the the woman thinks the guy thinks she is weaker than he. Tis a strange world we live in today.